Eurodram GA 2014 Prishtina informal report
Dear Friends,
A few words back from our last general assembly in Prishtina.
Came there the coordinators Gilles Boulan (French/Caen), Gergana Dimitrova (Bulgarian/Sofia), Andreas Flourakis (Greek/Athens), Kim Komljanec (Slovenian/Cambridge-Ljubljana), Jonathan Meth (English/London), Neda Nejdana (Ukrainian/Kiev), Jeton Neziraj (Albanian/Prishtina), Kujtim Pacaku (Rromani/Prizren), Hakan Silahsizoglu (Turkish/London-Istanbul), Ulrike Syha (German/Hamburg), Zohar Wexler (Hebrew/Paris), Dominique Dolmieu (Coordination/Paris), and Anne-Marie Bucquet from the Albanian committee.
It was quite a nice success and a big pleasure to meet you – in real. Thanks again to Jeton & the Nitas from Qendra Mulimedia, as well as Antony and the Celines in Maison d’Europe et d’Orient, for organization. Thanks also to Philippe Le Moine and the French Institute of Belgrad / Teatroskop program, Isabelle Combarnous and the French Embassy in Kosovo, as well as the Traduki connection (?) and the Alliance Française in Prishtina, that supported us for all the costs.
Through English and Globish languages we followed –more or less- our planning (Thanks also to Gilles who tried to resist a little with a bit of French !) :
Then first morning was dedicated to introduce each other and check the understanding of the rules of the network. On the afternoon some audience came and we tried to talk more about the plays that had been selected this year, what was reported in different newspaper and websites (Jeton, Nita, could you please send us the links ?). In the evening some of us could go to the National theatre to sleep a little.
On second day we had a special focus concerning Albanian theatre, then we talked about links to make, future projects or events, how to renew an develop committees. In the evening we could see the Kosovar premiere of “Peer Gynt from Kosovo” by Jeton Neziraj in the Oda Theatre, in a Kosovar/German/Swedish production – most of us appreciated much the work.
New organisation was detailed : thanks mainly to The Fence and Qendra Multimedia, 28 committees have now a coordination, and most of the committees that could not, have been deleted :
– Latvian and Lithuanian have gathered in a Baltic (languages) committee ;
– Danish and Norwegian have gathered in a Nordic committee : we are looking for members for Swedish and Icelandic ;
– Persian, Kurdish and a third of Central Asia have gathered in a Iranian committee ;
– A second third of central Asia has gone in the Russian committee ;
– The last third of Central Asia has gone in the Turkish committee, and Azeri might also join them, if they agree ;
– Czech, Slovakian and Sorabian might join Polish in a Occidental Slavic committee, if Jean Kudela and Jan Nowak can take/keep on the coordination ;
– Estonian, Hungarian, Ural-Volga and Finnish could gather in a Finno-Ugrian language, but a coordinator is needed ;
– Arabic has not been deleted, as being too new yet – we have big hope Jonathan could involve Penny Black to coordinate it ;
– We are waiting for Elsa Furtado to see if she can stay coordinator of the Russian committee ;
– Iulia Popovici doesn’t seem to be able and/or wishing to manage the coordination for Rumanian, someone else should take the job ;
– We have no connection with Portuguese world – would someone have any contact ?
We gave many congratulations to the Bulgarian, French, Hebrew, Italian and Ukrainian committees, that succeeded in all steps of the process : Translation of the user notice, renewal of the committee, organisation of the selection, detailed information about selected texts, coming to the GA.
Unfortunately, in general, the selection has not been promoted enough with press release on the different networks and press agencies (except mainly by Beatriz who did a great work !). But it can be done now anyhow (Ulrike, I don’t forget to answer your questions).
About information, was reminded the fact that calls sent on the coordinations list should be forwarded by each coordinator to his/her committee, was is not enough the case, despite numerous positive consequences are seen when it is done.
We talked about giving an independent structure to Eurodram, definitively separated from Maison d’Europe et d’Orient, about possibilities of an independent website, digital publications and mutualized newsletter with Beatriz and NITE news.
We talked about next possible grants, with EU, Asia-Europe Foundation, Andreas also proposed to contact Onassis Foundation, what I will do.
Concerning renewals, it is very necessary that the committees get rid of passive members and find new members, especially translators (and not only French ones !). I will soon send a formal message that each one can translate and send to his committee.
By the way, I will soon update a little the user notice – I will let you know. Anyhow dates for next year remain the same (just change 2014 to 2015), except for GA, we’ll check this later on.
Concerning GA 2015 Ulrike will try to see if something could be possible in Mannheim (Germany). And for GA 2016 Hakan will see with IKSV festival if something could be organized in Istanbul, maybe both with the city of Diyarbakir.
Third morning was dedicated to a Little Fence meeting. Jonathan told new potential members what is was about (Zohar has already joined !). We talked about future plans with Catherine Coray and Hot Ink, John Eisener (?) and Lark Theatre, Between the seas festival and Aktina Stathaki, University Eugene O’Neil, all this being in New York, from the next Fence meeting in January 2015, focusing on translation. Some other meetings might happen in Bucharest in November 2015 and Bordeaux in the summer 2015.
On the evening was the opening of Polip festival, very nice event and concert, finishing on the now famous 13th floor of Grand Hotel ! We had regrets not to meet Hristo Boytchev, that is in a residence in Qendra, but was finally not there at the moment. About it there was new talks between Isabelle Combarnous and Jeton, so let’s hope some French playwrights will be able to apply to residencies in Qendra next year. And Neda could go to Macedonia to check her running production in Skopje.
To remind you, next session / next season will be dedicated to translations. That means, for exemple, that the French committee will read and select plays translated from other languages into French. You can already start to send any translation you would have to me or to the coordinations list. To remind you, obviously translations must mention the name of the translator. And please mention clearly the language in which is written the translation, as I am not sure to recognize different languages in cyrillics, for example. Anyhow I will soon send a call about it.
To conclude some among you asked me about “Kosovo mon amour”, the only theatre text translated from Rromani to French, and “Voyage en Unmikistan”, this project we did in 2003 with Jeton. You will find bilingual versions attached. Some also asked about our 2001 project bringing 50 artists of 25 nationalities from Tbilisi to Paris, here you can find the movie : http://vimeo.com/61529944#at=0 . Enjoy !
I hope I didn’t forget too many things – please feel free to complete. Hope to meet all of you again soon, maybe in Sofia for next IETM meeting in Octobre (I’ll be there !)
Many hugs,
Dominique Dolmieu.
Eurodram – réseau européen de traduction théâtrale
Maison d’Europe et d’Orient – 3 passage Hennel – 75012 Paris